Miranda GT - worth getting?

Hello folks.

 

Nice to see this forum is still active!!

 

At the local thrift there is a Miranda Gt with an auto Miranda 50mm ( 5cm) lens.

It is very quiet; it's shutter fires like the breath of a cow; speeds seem on etc, etc..

 

I would appreciate any comments about it, and whether any of you thin k it worth picking up for

$15 - about $17 US ?

 

Like l said , it is SUPER QUIET, but what about the lens, because it is no use as a user if the

Miranda lens is anything like say, as lousy as a Domiplan.

 

Very interesting and obscure history to the thing.

I am having a hard time finding photos on the web taken with the auto Miranda 5cm lens.

 

Thanks all!

Hi, Mike Sounds like a bargain to me, so go for it, mate! The Miranda G is sometimes referred to as the "Poor Man's Nikon F" because of its versatility, which includes a lock-up mirror and user-changeable screens.

 

Don't have any fears about the quality of the Auto Miranda lens. It's a six-element Gauss design type, so nothing like the Dreaded Domiplan. Miranda lenses were made by Soligor, BTW. Their one fault is that oil can collect on the blades making them sluggish, but it's not difficult to fix. You just unscrew the front section of the lens and voila, there's the blades looking at you, waiting for some very gentle cleaning with a Q-tip dipped in lighter fluid or CRC Electronic Cleaner, both of which totally evaporate.

 

Your GT is so named because it's a G Model fitted with a metered pentaprism, as the basic G does not have metering. The metered pentaprism was a good idea in theory, but the trouble with them is that the scale readings are so small you'll need a strong loup to read them. Additionally, the circuitry is often dead thanks to the passage of time. However, You can still use the camera as its shutter is totally mechanical. If fact, if you acquired a standard Miranda non-metered pentaprism, you'd effectively have yourself a Miranda Model G. Some folks still like using unmetered cameras and guesstimating exposures under the old Sunny-16 Rule, but you could also get yourself a hand-held meter. A favourite of mine is the Weston Master V, but it's a bit on the big side. (Pete In Perth)

as peter says, it's a well made camera.

a tech at spiratone described the miranda bodies as ROBUST.

both halves of the 50mm lens unscrew and keave only mechanical parts

ronsinol ( lighter fluid) will clean it.

as well as early miranda soligot and vivitar lenses ( later lenses were NOT made in miranda mount

the YS ( sigma made) spiratone ( accura diamatic) lenses were available then

the T4 lenses also had miranda adapters.

I am still looking for a short TX zoom ( to use with a t4 adapter )

 

the bodies are solid castings so the cameras are sligtly heavy,

mine, adter 45 years are still working.

The G was the closest Miranda got to a pro body - all Mirandas had interchangeable prisms and waist level finders, but only the G had an interchangeable focusing screen and mirror lockup. An interesting alternative to the uncoupled T meter prism was a non-TTL meter that was coupled to the shutter speed dial and attached to the top right of the camera. Other than those features, the camera was similar to the earlier F and the later Sensomat: compact, quiet and smooth in operation, perhaps a bit more sensitive to cold weather and sluggish slow speeds than average but a good performer if it's had a CLA at any time within memory.

THANKS!

What l will do is pick it up tomorrow and clean the body up a bit.

Then i will forward some photos of it for you all !

The lens itself does not seem to be sticking at all, so hope for the best.

I want to take some sample photos and scan them and send

them in to you all.

A GT at that price is a great buy, but the only minor problem will be filling out the lens collection. I have an Fv and a Sensomat and the lenses I have are the 50/1.9 and the 35/2.8. I like the lenses a lot, but not many come on the market that are specifically for the F/G/Sensomat bodies.

"breath of a cow"?

oh, thats a phrase i picked up in a book;

it means quiet.

 

But now there is oil on the lens blades and i will go through hell and visit the camera demons again trying to

disassemble that thing to get at them.

 

A dreadful and daunting - probably futile- task.

 

oh well, shutter sounds good anyway.